Till It Be Morrow
by Tey'Imena
Summary: Series of prompted drabbles. Ratings will vary; may contain AU drabbles. Currently:  A plague o' both your houses! "There would be no need for another to become the Seed. Let the plague be lifted."
1. bite your thumb

Taking from a list of prompts off an LJ _Romeo X Juliet_ fan community.

First prompt: Shakespeare; "No, sir, I do no bite my thumb at you, sir, but I do bite my thumb, sir."

Drabble; 311 words.

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The Carabinieri were looking for excuses to harass the people. Conrad was sure of it.

Here he was, walking along minding his own business (bastard Montague; one day Conrad would not have to keep his head down and his identity hidden), fetching necessary foodstuffs with Cordelia.

Cordelia had a habit of biting down on the thick of her thumb when concentrating. And since prices had a recent habit of climbing, even for the simplest of items, Cordelia was sharpening her concentration to make sure that she wasn't being cheated.

So, today, Cordelia bit her thumb. And a Carabinieri officer happened to pass by at that exact moment – unfortunately.

"You—! You just _bit your thumb at me_!" The officer cried, face suffusing with affront.

Cordelia jumped, her thumb slipping out of her mouth as she stared at the officer in surprise and apprehension. She'd always tried to _avoid_ the attention of the Carbienieri; why was an officer shouting at her?

Conrad could feel his ire rising.

"S-sir?" Cordelia said.

"You bit your thumb! At me!" the Carbinieri officer spat, not caring of the scene he was causing.

"No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir, but I bite my thumb, sir," Cordelia said honestly.

"You do not bite your thumb at me? Ha! Why should I believe _you_?"

"I bite my thumb when focusing," Cordelia admitted quietly. "And with prices of foodstuffs having risen, I needs must concentrate more so as to make sure I am staying within the contents of my purse."

The Carabinieri officer scowled at Cordelia. Conrad could barely hold back the urge to scowl back at the bastard.

"Very well, then," the officer growled, turning with a flourish of his cloak.

The minute his back was turned, Conrad very deliberately bit his thumb at the officer. 

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29 more prompts to go! :] Well, 29 more Shakespeare prompts. And then 30 basic prompts. Also, some prompts may be revisited more than once.


	2. bitter medicine

Shakespearean prompt 19: "A plague o' both your houses!"

404 words

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The Goddess watched her children grow, watched them live and change and laugh and love and die. She watched them as they warred against each other – and when they warred against her.

And she wept most bitterly when Escalus' twin shriveled due to the avarice and sin of man. Now all the weight of the world depended on Escalus, and even the mightiest of oaks would bend under such pressure. It was almost inevitable, the tragedy that came.

But it _could_ have been avoided; the Capulets had long been the caretakers of Escalus, and the tree had always been healthy under their care, flourishing and thriving as the recipient of the great love they bore for each other, for the people of Neo Verona, for the Goddess, and for Escalus itself.

This tragedy could have been avoided.

But like the death of Escalus' twin, avarice won out in the end. Montague's greed consumed his heart – greed for power, greed for control, greed for revenge. And with a heart consumed by greed, there could never be a place for love of any kind, much less the great love needed to supply the Holy Tree.

But Romeo and Juliet…

_There_ was a love that could have sustained Escalus for generations; _there_ was a love that could have averted the entire tragedy. But it was not to be. For men's avarice had wound its hungry tendrils through the roots of the Holy Tree, draining the power and life from it until the only way to replace what had been lost was to take it from another.

From Juliet. From Romeo. From Neo Verona.

Only the sacrifice of the Capulet princess and the Montague prince was enough to bring back the life of the Holy Tree, even from the very edge of death. Their love, even in death, was more than enough.

And so the Goddess wept again with an even heavier heart for the sacrifice she had been forced to demand of the two blameless lovers.

"A plague o' both your houses," she whispered, thinking of the pall Montague's greed had cast. "Let it now be lifted, for the bitter medicine has been taken." She brushed her incorporeal fingers gently across the faces of Romeo and Juliet, cradled in the heart of Escalus, preserved for all eternity.

There would be no need for another to become the Seed.

Let the plague be lifted.


End file.
